It is common to arc weld or otherwise attach an elongated circular end of a threaded metal stud onto a sheet metal body panel of an item of equipment such as an automotive vehicle for example for purposes of providing a ground return path through the body panel. Various electrical terminal connections or other parts are then inserted upon the single threaded stud and an internally threaded nut is rotationally inserted onto the stud thereby fastening the terminal ends with the equipment via the stud. Conventional threaded weld studs have also been employed as electrical grounding points for a vehicle wire harness to an engine compartment frame or body panel.
It is also known to employ a grounding weld stud that has a threaded portion, a circular flanged portion and a polygonal shoulder portion for receiving one or more wire harness eyelets having a matching polygonal shoulder portion. The polygonal shoulder portion of the weld stud is typically of an hexagonal or octagonal conformation for receiving the eyelet having a corresponding or equivalent matching hexagonal or octagonal conformation.
The polygonal shoulder configuration of weld studs of this type, however, are difficult to manufacture because they present undesirably large corner-to-corner and flat-to-flat dimensions across the shoulder, and therefore typically do not fit within standard stud welding machinery which can usually only handle a certain maximum outside diameter of stud. In addition, the large corner-to-corner and flat-to-flat dimensions also undesirably limits the number of positions available for mounting the eyelet relative to the stud and associated equipment coupled with the stud. This makes mounting the eyelet onto the stud at a desired relative orientation difficult in some applications.
It is therefore desirable to provide grounding studs and grounding connections without these limitations and, in particular, to provide studs usable with standard stud welding machinery and matable with wire harness eyelets in a much wider range of relative orientations than studs having only flat or polygonal shoulder portions.